Tag Archives: Bars

In L.A., It’s not enough to be invited to the “opening” of a new club, in fact – that’s usually not a good thing. If you get a Grand Opening invitation in your inbox – know that you have fallen into the wrong camp! IF you are in the loop in Los Angeles, you never go to a club opening; you go to pre-openings, sneak peaks, or private events at the not-yet-opened venue. For instance, three years ago before Shag opened, I had my birthday party there with my friend Dory Benami, a friend of the owner’s, Shareen. The next night, Vanity Fair hosted a private party as well. Shag then opened the following weekend … Tonight, Alison Melnick, an L.A. promoter and celebrity wrangler, gave her birthday at the soon-to-open Playhouse. This much awaited club has promised to feature live acrobats swinging from the ceiling all night and rumor has it you can expect your bottle service waiters to jump up on tables and pull bunnies from their hats at any given moment.

Just when I thought this was too good to be true, I ran into my buddy Nico Golfar, a bit of a tech expert, who explained to me that Playhouse has another magic trick:

The club has installed a Funktion-One sound system – which uses a frequency-emitting technology to make sound waves pass through each other – as opposed to bounce off and all over the place. This has the effect of allowing voices to be heard in the club no matter how loud the volume. I was wondering why I didn’t have a headache and wasn’t annoyed despite my drunk date. I am told Playhouse is one of two club in L.A. to bother with the high priced ticket to give club-goers a superior experience. Nico, also a native Brit, went on to tell me this is very standard for clubs in New York and London, once again, defining L.A. as a culture who’s participants simply do not demand quality. A manager of the Nobu chain once told me the difference between Nobu patrons across the globe is as follows: clients in London demand quality in their food, whereas the clients at their New York locations are picky about service. And at their Malibu and La Cienega locations, he says people don’t notice either – they just want a table near the door!

The funniest moment of the evening was when the Fire Marshall came to do the usual head count – as they do every night all over Hollywood. Three acrobat vixens were entertaining a table-full of club-goers and literally – as the Fire Marshall was squeezing behind them – all three lite up Sparklers. Yes! Sparklers. It was like a fire marshall’swet dream. They demanded to see the stock where the sparklers had come from and each fireman stormed out with a couple boxes each! That surely cost club owner Rob Vinokur a pretty penny – though it’s doubtful he was aware of the obvious infringement to safety standards; I’m guessing someone else’s head rolled!

Other interesting partons of the night to attend Allison’s birthday – Casey Johnson (set to inherit the Johnson and Johnson trust), Jessica Meisels (founded of celebrity-connected Fingerprint PR), Samaire Armstron (actress, Dirty Sexy Money), David Katzenberg (son of movie producer Jeffrey Katzenberg and boyfriend of Nicky Hilton), Elliot Mintz (the on-again off-again publicist to Paris Hilton and many others) and singer Eve.

“Funktion One Sound System” is run off laptops

Fire Marshall sneaks some pics, after confiscating sparklers from the acrobats

Pubicist Jessica Miesels with heiress Casey Johnson, Right: Alison Melnick with singer Eve

Allison Melnick & Samaire Armstrong, David Katzenberg, Allison Melnick, Elliot Mintz

Playhouse owner Rob Vinokur and Igor Z with Playhouse Servers (Uniforms by Kelly Nishimoto)

An interesting perk of the night – “Too-Faced” make-up stationed ”touch-up” booths through-out the club, and gave away cosmetics. Birthday girl Allison Melnick geting a touch-up.

Me leaving without my date – @DoryBenami is too wild for me

Building owner and L.A. nightlife veteran Rick Calamaro leaving the Playhouse

Lines are still endless, Hollywood has a new club in town …